Father Smith and Dr Tom More

Fyodor Gutman (kenrose@IX.NETCOM.COM)
Sun, 30 Mar 1997 15:09:12 -0600

Ed--
Here's my own take on the relationship between Fr. Smith and TM. In
Tom's heart, I think he knows that FS is right. Being a lapsed
Catholic, however, he's a little put off with FS's stridency and
straight talking. He'd like a little more subtlety. That is to say,
bad as the world may be, Tom still has one foot in it, and much as he
likes Rinaldo, he's not in a hurry to be identified with him--else the
secular world will think him, Tom, looney by association.

And I guess, for me, that's the whole point about Percy's work. Is
indirect communications the right word for it? To me he was a very
subtle writer. The deep meaning and religious conviction is there but
he's not going to hit you over the head with it. And he'll give his
secular readers an out. Note that a few pages after FS gives his
climactic tirade, he's all of a sudden an inmate in his own hospice.
Alzheimer's, wasn't it? Percy, to me, seems to be foolin' with us a
little--and that's good. He's saying, well, FS isn't all that sound
anymore but perhaps there's still something to what he's said. Is
there or isn't there? Think about it.

Percy's books all seem to end with the possibility of transcendence and
belief, but he doesn't explicitly say so. Think of The Moviegoer's
epilogue. I see Binx as having undergone a religious conversion, but
it's not entirely certain. Remember he says he's not inclined to talk
about his search. So too with Percy. He'll explore the problem of
modern man, lead you right up to possible solutions, but then he'll let
you think about it. Remember when he quoted Flannery O'Connor's
opinions about edifying novels? I think we need to keep Percy from
becoming edifying, lest we defang him in the process.

Just my thoughts,

Ken